Tag Archives: Moving to Dickinson, North Dakota

Housing, Employment, Cost of Living

Paranormal Oil Fields Article For Steph Young

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Note to Readers:  My previous blog post is a Preface to this article that explains how and why this article came about.

 

I began working in the Oil Fields of North Dakota in 2011, several years after an Oil Boom occurred due to advances in hydraulic fracturing technology that allowed oil to be extracted from what was called the “Bakken” formation approximately 6,000 to 7,000 feet below ground.

I did not know very much about the oil industry or the oil fields when I arrived in North Dakota.  What was puzzling to me, was why had oil been called a “fossil fuel”, and been attributed to decaying plants and animals that had lived thousands of years ago?  How did 6,000 to 7,000 feet of earth get over top of the decaying plants and animals that lived thousands of years ago?  This didn’t seem possible.

I lived in Dickinson, North Dakota.  Dickinson had a Dinosaur Museum containing Dinosaur bones and fossils that had been uncovered in North Dakota.  Yes, these Dinosaur artifacts were evidence of animals and plants that had lived thousands of years ago, but these artifacts had been found within a hundred feet of the surface.  Again, why did scientists and the oil industry claim that oil came from prehistoric plants and animals, when oil was extracted from 6,000 to 7,000 feet deep?

The following year, I went to work in the oil fields of Vernal, Utah.  Vernal also had a Dinosaur Museum containing bones and fossils that had been uncovered in Utah.  I began to think, “Does everywhere that oil has been found, have a Dinosaur Museum?”  I began to think about it, and the answer was probably yes, everywhere that oil has been found, there have been Dinosaurs uncovered.  Maybe this was why geologists and scientists working in the oil industry came up with the idea that oil was a “fossil fuel”.

This seemed strange to me.  Did oil men and geologists actually go searching for geological formations to find oil, or did they just try to find out where Dinosaurs had been uncovered and then go there?  The smart ones probably did, and they just didn’t tell anyone what they were doing.

I was in Vernal, Utah for several days thinking about this, when it dawned on me that about fifteen years earlier, I had heard on the overnight talk radio show “Coast To Coast AM” hosted by Art Bell, about a very strange place in Utah called “The Skin Walker Ranch”.  Could the “Skin Walker Ranch” be located near here?

Back in approximately 1996 when I first heard the radio broadcast about the Skin Walker Ranch, many of the details of the people involved and the actual location were kept secret.  By 2012 when I looked it up on the internet, there was much more information about it, and yes, it was located just outside of Vernal, Utah, near what is called the Fort Duchesne, Uintah Indian Reservation.

First of all, a “Skin Walker” is a Native American term for a medicine-man or shaman, who has the ability to transform his shape into that of an animal, typically a large wolf.  Most Native Americans are very sensitive and uncommunicative about this subject for two reasons.  One, most Native Americans who were raised in their traditional culture, actually believe that some Native Americans can transform themselves into an animal such as wolf, for sinister purposes, and have had family members who in private have claimed to have seen one.  Two, most Native Americans don’t want to discuss this subject with outsiders because it is part of their spiritual beliefs, and they don’t want to be either ridiculed, or demanded to explain it to someone else’s satisfaction.

In approximately the early 1990s, a family purchased two hundred acres of land outside of Vernal, Utah adjacent to the Uintah Indian Reservation.  The family purchased the land in order to raise cattle, and there was a small farm house on the land that was approximately fifty to seventy years old.  When the family first moved in, there was a very large wolf that seemed tame, that came right up to the family and a calf that they had in their corral.  When the large tame wolf grabbed the snout of the calf with its teeth, the new ranch owner quickly got a pistol out of his truck and he shot the wolf several times, and it just walked away, appearing to be unharmed.

The family did not know what to think of this, this large tame wolf that came right up to them, and was unharmed after it had been shot several times.  It was not a natural, normal animal like they had ever seen.  In the following weeks, the wife saw wolf-like animals on the property several more times, but they were not exactly wolves.  Then, the family started to see glowing orange and yellow orbs that would float around the property.

The family began to notice that there were large metal rings embedded in concrete just outside of their back door and front door of their house, where the previous owners had apparently kept dogs on a chain.  The neighbors said that yes, the previous owners kept to themselves very much, but they had several very large guard dogs.  The family found that the closets in the house had bolt locks on the doors, on the inside of the doors.  Why had the previous owners of the house had the need to chain guard dogs outside of their front and back doors, and lock themselves inside their closets?

As time went on, the family spotted strange large pre-historic-like animals in trees at night, more glowing orbs floating around their property, disembodied unseen beings speaking a strange language, and witnessed a portal opening up in front of them above the ground.  Eventually the family was very upset, and frustrated with all of the phenomena, they would go bankrupt if they didn’t succeed in their ranching operation.  The rancher sicked his two dogs on one of the floating orange orbs, his two dogs chased after it, and after they got behind some trees, he heard his dogs yelp, and that was the end of his two dogs, all that remained was two grease spots on the ground.

The family got in contact with the National Institute For Discovery Science, and they began investigating.  So much was happening at the property, that NIDS offered to buy the property from the family, and they gladly sold it to NIDS and moved away.  NIDS conducted scientific experiments and investigations at the property for a couple of years, but then the paranormal activity mostly ceased.  From approximately 1995 until I visited the Skin Walker Ranch in 2012, and continuing to this day, the ranch is guarded 24 hours per day by security guards.

I went to the Skin Walker Ranch in 2012, it was a little difficult to find, but once I got to it, it matched up with the photographs and maps of the property that showed the concrete security barriers at the front gate, the farm house, and the rock hillside that rises behind the property.  At that time, you were allowed to park about 1/2 mile from the property on a hill that overlooked the property.  You could see the observation towers that NIDS had constructed in the pasture, and two security vehicles that patrolled the property and parked at each end of the property.  I watched the property for several hours with binoculars, which was fun and exciting at first, but then got boring when nothing happened.

Later that evening when I left and drove to a busy convenience store on the Fort Duchesne Reservation, I walked up to a Uintah Tribal Police Officer in the parking lot and told him that I had been watching the Skin Walker Ranch for several hours, but I had not seen any floating orange orbs, had he ever seen any.  He looked around to make sure that no one could over hear him and he said yes, many times.  He said that that was not even the best location on the reservation to see orbs, there were more orbs in other places.  As I continued to ask him questions, he answered that they commonly had very large UFOs pass low over the reservation, that he and the other police officers would stand and look at the UFOs together while they were on duty.  He concluded by saying that the Native Americans have no desire to report this to anyone, they would only be questioned, ridiculed, and cause unwanted people to come to the reservation.

At some risk of losing my job working for a respected oil field service company in Vernal, I asked the company owner about the Skin Walker Ranch.  To my surprise, the company owner replied that yes, he knew the family that had owned the Skin Walker Ranch and that he was aware of all the problems that they had had.  Besides this family, another family that he knew that lived not too far away, had a large skinny six foot tall wolf like creature that walked on its hind legs, come and try to sun itself on the metal roof of their shed.  The wife called her husband to come home and do something about it, and when he drove up, the creature stood up on its hind legs, climbed down, and ran away.

Months later, when I was reading the Bigfoot Field Researchers Organization website which lists sightings by region, I saw a Bigfoot sighting report for Uintah County, not too  far from where my employer lived.  I told my employer about this particular Bigfoot sighting report, and my employer replied that his cousin had seen a Bigfoot on two separate occasions while hunting in the Uintah Mountains.

When I went back to my home in Idaho for the winter, I asked a thirty year old girl that I knew named Roben, who was from Vernal, Utah, about the Skin Walker Ranch.  She said that since I brought this subject up, it reminded her of something that had happened to her.  About eight years ago, she received a telephone call from a producer who worked for the television show “Unsolved Mysteries”, they wanted to know if she was the correct Roben from Vernal, Utah.  They had information that her grandfather had found three mummies inside a cave in the mountains outside of Vernal, Utah many years ago, what could she tell them about the mummies.

Roben explained to them that yes, her grandfather had found three mummies inside a cave in the mountains outside of Vernal while he was hunting.  He carried them down, and he took them home.  He turned over two of the mummies to the Smithsonian Institute, but he kept one of them.  She said that she remembered the one mummy from when she was a kid, it was very small, and it was sitting cross legged.  People kept taking it down and handling it, and it became so dry and brittle, that eventually it just crumbled and disintegrated.

Roben told me one more story from Vernal, Utah.  When her mother was a child, about eight to ten years old, a UFO flew over their house very slowly, it left these white whispy wafts in the tree branches, and her mother picked them out of the trees and played with them.

So in Vernal, Utah, and outside of Vernal in the Uintah Mountains and the Fort Duchesne Uintah Indian Reservation, there have been low flying, slow moving, large UFOs sighted for many years, Bigfoots, wolf-like creatures, other pre-historic-like creatures, floating orange orbs, disembodied unseen beings conversing in a strange language, mummies in caves, Dinosaur remains, and portals seen opening up.  I believe that the ancestral sacred land of the Uintah Native American tribe has a portal to a different dimension that has orbs, UFOs, Bigfoots, other creatures, and beings passing through it.

In 2013, I went back to Dickinson, North Dakota to work in the oil field.  The owner of the house where I lived, he, his parents, and his grandparents had lived in this area of North Dakota for their entire lives.  He told me that he remembered very clearly that in the 1970s, twenty miles south of Dickinson in the town of New England, there was a rash of UFO sightings, some of them up close sightings where the UFOs actually landed.  Farmers and ranchers were coming into town in New England and discussing with everyone and each other what they had seen.  Then, the Air Force came to town and told all of the farmers and ranchers to shut up about it, or else.  They did shut up about it, and no one wanted to talk about it any more.

The person who owned the home where I lived, said that the Air Force then set up a station in New England.  I tried several times to find any information about the Air Force having any operation in New England, North Dakota, but I could not find even a brief mention of it.  In time, I did find other people that remembered there being an Air Force station in New England, North Dakota, but it was strange that there is no public information about it, this would have been a big deal for New England, its population was less than 1,000 people.

In Dickinson, North Dakota, on top of a high butte northeast of town, is Radar Base Hill.  Radar Base Hill was operational from the 1950s until approximately the early 1970s.  All of the people in Dickinson were told that it was a radar weather station.  It was actually a radar tracking station for aircraft approaching North Dakota after the nuclear armed Inter Continental Ballistic Missile underground launch facilities were constructed in North Dakota.  Additionally, the facility at Radar Base Hill in Dickinson was so large, had so many personnel, and had a large section underground that no one knew about, it was not known that Radar Base Hill was an operations center for personnel that would man the underground ICBM launch facilities.

All of the North Dakotans did keep their mouth shut about where the underground ICBM launch facilities were constructed, though each site was a large construction project.  Though it is hardly ever talked about, it is now mentioned briefly sometimes by local people where individual launch facilities are located not far outside of Dickinson.  There are very infamous incidents of UFOs approaching ICBM sites and causing launch sequences to start and overriding operator control in other states and countries, but no reports of this happening to ICBMs in North Dakota.  Did the UFO activity in New England in the 1970s pose a threat or interfere with the ICBMs in this area?

(Note, after doing more reading, I found out that UFOs did interfere with ICBM launch facilities in North Dakota on numerous occasions.  See Capt. David D. Schindele’s book “It Never Happened, Volume 1”.  Also, I later found more UFO sighting reports for Dickinson, New England, and the surrounding areas in the document “The Fifth Horseman Of The Apocalypse, UFOs: A History, 1956: November-December” by Loren E. Gross, which is now a 91 page PDF document that has been uploaded to the internet.)

There are very few Bigfoot sightings in North Dakota, however there have been numerous Bigfoot sightings on the Fort Berthold Native American Reservation near the Killdeer Mountains.  The Bigfoot Field Researchers Organization website has some very good thorough reports on some of these sightings on or near the Fort Berthold Reservation involving many witnesses, over several days.

The Killdeer Mountains are sacred to the Native Americans.  This is one of the very few places in North Dakota where there are sheltered valleys with dense forests.  Native Americans lived in these valleys of the Killdeer Mountains for thousands of years until the United States Cavalry destroyed these villages, tipis, earth lodges, and food stores in 1864 when General Alfred Sully led an attack on the Sioux and other tribes in what was called the Battle Of Killdeer Mountain.

General Sully led 2,200 soldiers on an attack advancing up Killdeer Mountain in a formation meant to encircle the Sioux positioned on top of the mountain.  Not far from the top of Killdeer Mountain by the end of the day when it became dark, General Sully halted the advance believing that the Sioux were surrounded.  On the following day, there were only a handful of Sioux on the mountain.  What happened to the rest of the Sioux?

There was a cave on top of Killdeer Mountain, called Medicine Hole Cave.  It was believed that the Sioux entered this cave, and exited many miles to the west in what is now called Grassy Butte.  This is the Legend of Medicine Hole Cave.  There were early attempts by white men to find the exit to this cave, but they could not find it, though they could feel wind currents that indicated there was an exit to this cave.  In the 1970s, experienced cave explorers entered this cave with modern equipment and attempted to map out the interior of this cave, but again they could not find an exit, though the wind currents inside the cave again indicated that there was an exit.

Bigfoots in the Killdeer Mountains, and Native Americans escaping from General Sully who had them surrounded in the sacred ancestral lands of the Killdeer Mountains.  I wonder if there is not a portal to another dimension in the Killdeer Mountains.

Strange Behavior In Dickinson, North Dakota

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In 2011 when I first came to work in Dickinson, North Dakota, I tried to make friends with the property owner who lived next door to the company where I worked.  I was staying in my truck bed camper on the back of the property of the company where I worked.  In the evening, I would talk to the property owner on the other side of the chain link fence. He was living in an old travel trailer on his property, and he did not want to be friends at first.

In the evening, I would sometimes go to the Tiger Truck stop to connect to the internet with my laptop computer.  At the Tiger Truck stop, I became friends with other oil field workers who came there in the evening with their laptop computers to connect to the internet.  But who also showed up in the evening at the Tiger Truck stop, was my neighbor who lived on the property on the other side of the fence where I worked.  He did not have running water at his travel trailer, and he came to the Tiger Truck stop sometimes to take a shower.

After some time, I got to know this neighbor very well and we became friends.  Many local people said that he was crazy, and yes, he was mentally ill.  I introduced him to other people that I knew, and he became friends or acquaintances with them.  Myself and my friends that I had introduced to him, we were all told the details of developers’ offers to buy his land for $2 million to $2.5 million, which he repeatedly refused.  He did not have running water or sewer at his old, twenty foot long travel trailer that he lived in, and he had to use the bathroom at gas stations, and take showers at the truck stop or the West River Community Center, yet he would not accept $2.5 million for his land.  He wanted more money than this for his land, though he had purchased it for about $20,000.

He often talked about the greed in Dickinson, North Dakota, always referring to other people, but he was one of the greediest people that I have ever met.  None of the local people in Dickinson wanted to be friends with him or have anything to do with him, including his own family, they were all sick and tired of him.  Myself and some of my friends loaned him money from time to time, which he paid back when he received money from his family trust.  We invited him places, helped him when he had vehicle problems, and helped him with some of his projects that he needed help with.  But he was very little help when myself or my friends needed help.

One of my friends from Wyoming explained to me, “He has got this strange kind of sickness that people in Dickinson have, where they hate each other, can’t get along, won’t help anybody, try to take advantage of everybody else, think that everybody is out to get them and steal from them, and then they complain about how they are treated unfairly.”  In other words:  they hate people, yet complain that they are hated; they will not help anybody, yet complain that no one will help them; they try to take advantage of other people, yet complain that people are out to get them and steal from them.  He and other people in Dickinson, have this extreme hypocrisy, which you would have to be mentally ill in order to sustain this internal mental operating system because it is so self-contradictory.  He died about one year ago.

I tried to make friends with another one of my neighbors in Dickinson recently, and I am very disappointed and discouraged because he is turning out to be a very rotten person.  I think that he is probably the most selfish person that I have ever met, and one of the most negative.  What I had thought was just eccentric or quirky behavior, nothing more than that, was just the tip of the iceberg of some underlying severe mental illness.  Had I known this, I would not have tried to become friends.  But I am writing about this neighbor, because he has this same type of extreme hypocrisy that people have in Dickinson.

He personally wants help for himself, but he has no intention of helping other people, desire to help other people, or history of helping other people.  He seeks out different churches, but he has no intention or desire to practice Christianity.  He complains about rules, laws, and ordinances which adversely affect him, but he is all for rules, laws, and ordinances which adversely affect other people.

One of the things that I was thinking about today that caused me to write this particular blog post, was that I was observing today in Dickinson, that the local people are becoming even more unfriendly now, than they have been during the past six years.  How this is even possible is astonishing and alarming to me.

What I had thought, and what other people had thought, was that the people in Dickinson were hostile and unfriendly because their town had just been invaded by about 5,000 oil field workers during the oil boom.  What I had not known, was that the invasion of 5,000 oil field workers had actually calmed down and assuaged their normally higher levels of hostility and unfriendliness.

Expect To Not Be Paid By Local Employers In Dickinson, North Dakota

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One of the purposes of this blog website, is to inform people from out of state what living in Dickinson, North Dakota is like.  One of the most important things that I can tell people who are planning on moving to Dickinson, North Dakota, is to be prepared for local companies in Dickinson to not pay wages that are owed.

I am 48 years old, and I have worked in Florida, Colorado, Texas, Arizona, Utah, Idaho, and North Dakota.  The only time that I have not been paid wages owed, is here in Dickinson, North Dakota.

I have already written a couple of blog posts about my previous employer in Dickinson, a local oil field service company with about seventy employees, that had failed to pay me for all the hours that I had worked, which amounted to approximately $630 in unpaid wages owed by the time that I received my third pay check.  I had to contact the North Dakota Department of Labor, and then go and get the Small Claims Court paper work at the Court House to file a civil suit against this employer before they agreed to pay me the wages that I was owed.

The Bismarck Tribune newspaper wrote an article approximately one year ago, stating that the Department of Labor in North Dakota has been overwhelmed with non-payment of wages cases, mostly from Western North Dakota.  This is why I realized that the Small Claims Court would be a quicker, surer way to get the money that I was owed.

Now, for my most recent employer, another local Dickinson company with about seventy employees, the person that hired me told me that I would be paid $20 per hour.  There was no negotiating or discussion, this is what I was offered, and this is what I accepted.  I was told that I would be working every day, for twelve hours per day, for approximately the next month.  This worked out to about $2,000 per week, and $8,000 per month.

The work was very hard physical labor.  I have had above average strength and stamina for most of my life, but I am 48 years old now, and I am not as physically strong as I used to be.  I did not know if I could hand dig, pound stakes with a sledge hammer, lift, and carry heavy things all day long, for twelve hours a day, day after day after day.  It was very difficult for me, but I did it, I wanted the $2,000 per week.

I received two other job offers shortly after accepting this job, but I politely declined both of these job offers, explaining that I had already accepted another job, and was sticking with it because it paid $2,000 per week, otherwise I would have liked to have worked for their company.

After working for sixteen days straight, I received my first pay check direct deposited to my checking account on this past Friday.  The check was for much less money than it should have been.  One of the reasons why it was less than it should have been, was because I was being paid at $18 per hour, not $20 per hour as I was offered and accepted when I was hired.

I was very, very angry about this, in part, because I was not paid wages owed by my previous local employer here in Dickinson, I had to threaten to take them to court to get all of my unpaid wages, and now this same thing is happening to me again.  I was angry because it was very hard physical labor for twelve hours each day, and I was expecting to be paid $2,000 per week.  I was angry because I had declined two job offers from other companies because I was expecting to be paid $2,000 per week at this company.

I do not yet know who/how/why I was not paid what I was told, what I accepted, and what I agreed to.  I considered not going to work Saturday morning, this morning, because I was so angry.  But I thought that perhaps it was a simple mistake, that the company would be willing to resolve.

I went to work this Saturday morning.  By 12 noon, approximately four of the ten workers present, left for the remainder of the day, with various excuses, whether they were legitimate reasons or not.  I was still so angry about not being paid what I was owed, that I thought that perhaps the best thing for me to do, would be to say that I was sick, and to go home for the remainder of the day, lest I lose my temper at someone, or over something.

At approximately 1:00 p.m., a foreman named Mike, who was not my foreman, who I had never met, and who I had never worked for, drove by my work truck and called me out on the radio, “Why are you sitting in your truck?!”  I replied, “I just got in my truck to move it forward, my foreman is on the loader behind me, watching me and what I am doing, are you my foreman, or is Jeremy?”  Mike replied, “We are all your foreman.”  My foreman who was one hundred feet behind me on the loader, and the superintendent remained silent, and didn’t object.

I could tell from foreman Mike’s demeanor, that he was going to try to assert some kind of master-slave work conditions on me for the remainder of the day.  I had worked for the past sixteen days straight, without complaint, mistake, mishap, or problems with my co-workers, foreman, and superintendent.  I tried to get along with these twelve people, to do what they wanted, to work in agreement, to work in cooperation, to keep up with them, to do as much or more of the work, and to help them in their work.  My co-workers, my foreman, and the superintendent were with me throughout the day, every day.  If anything needed to be done, I took direction from my co-workers, my foreman, and the superintendent.  I did not need, and it was not a good idea, for someone outside of this work group, who did not know me or anything about me, who was not aware of what I had been instructed to do, to drive by or drive up and get on me about my work.

I couldn’t believe, and I didn’t like, that I was not being paid what I had been told, and that my foreman and the superintendent were not sticking up for me when another foreman was trying to get on me about my work.  I told my co-worker that I was quitting, to get in the truck, I will drive back to the yard and that he could take the truck.  I told my foreman that I was quitting because I was not being paid what I was told, and that I didn’t like being fucked with by someone who doesn’t know me, who I have never met, and who I have never worked for.  I drove to the yard, and I told the superintendent the same thing.

Neither my foreman or the superintendent cared very much.  They could not care less.  This was not much of a surprise to me.  Nor will it be much of a surprise to me when the person who hired me, fails to acknowledge that he told me that I would be paid $20 per hour.  This is why I will file a Small Claims civil court case against the owner of the company for the wages that I am owed.

When I file a Small Claims civil court case against the owner of the company personally for wages that I am owed, there will be a permanent record of the case for everyone to see and look up.  The owner of the company will be served the court papers at his company office by a Sheriff Deputy, and his reaction will be, “What the fuck is this shit?!”  Then, the “I could not care less” attitude will stop, and be replaced with “I wish that I would not have done that.”

The owner of the company can appear personally on the court date and defend himself against my claim for unpaid wages, and hear what happened to me, which is fine with me.  Or, the owner of the company can hire an attorney to represent him in court, which will cost him at least $750 in attorney’s fees, plus the unpaid wages that I am owed, which is fine with me.  Or, the owner of the company can not show up in court, not be represented by an attorney, and I will be awarded a default judgement for the unpaid wages that I am owed, which is fine with me.  In all three scenarios, there will be a record of the judgment against this employer for everyone to see and look up.

If you come to Dickinson, North Dakota, I advise you to be aware that the local companies here in Dickinson will attempt to not pay you the wages that you are owed.  I recommend that before you accept a job with a local company here in Dickinson, that you look up the owner of the company on the North Dakota Court Record Repository, “NDCourts” to see what kind of person they are.  I also recommend contacting the North Dakota Department of Labor to ask how many complaints the employer has for nonpayment of wages.

Some Wanted, And Unwanted Attention In Dickinson, North Dakota

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In my previous blog post, I explained that I have been working for 12 hours a day, every day, for the past two weeks.  When I get home from work, I have about 1-1/2 hours to eat and do errands before I have to go to bed, because I am so tired and I have to wake up at 4:30 a.m.  One of the things that I like to do while I am eating, is check my e-mail, check my Facebook account, and check my blog website statistics and comments.

A few days ago, I was noticing on my Facebook account, many angry looking North Dakotans that I don’t personally know, looking at my Facebook profile.  This is a result of both my blog website, and other things that I have done.  However, in the mix of the angry looking North Dakotans, there were a couple of prominent North Dakotans, and one well-known female British author.

This well-known female British author has published half a dozen successful books, and she regularly appears on talk shows.  She lives in London, and there would not be any reason for her to look me up on Facebook, other than the fact that several of the very specific subjects that she has been writing about recently, I have written about in some of my blog posts.  I am flattered that she made some deliberate effort to find out who I was in order to look me up on Facebook.

Unfortunately, I have also written many blog posts about women, which I believe that she probably doesn’t like or appreciate, which is probably why she has not replied to my e-mail that I sent to her.  This is no surprise to me, and I hope that I can write more things to irritate her and other women.

As far as the angry looking North Dakotans viewing my Facebook profile, it is good that they are reading my blog posts.  Even if they don’t agree with what I am writing, at least they can become aware of other people’s perspectives.  More and more people becoming aware of other people’s point of view, experiences, and opinions on Dickinson will, I think, help to change Dickinson for the better.

In A Way, I Finally Got The Job That I Always Wanted In Dickinson, North Dakota

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When I first came to Dickinson in 2011, I was looking for a very high paying job in the oil field that would allow me to quickly build up money in savings, pay down my credit cards, pay my biggest recurring bills like property tax and homeowners insurance, and return to my home in Idaho by Christmas.  It didn’t really work out that way.

I did return home to Idaho just before Christmas, but with less money in the bank than when I arrived in Dickinson in May, and with a very injured back.  Working for a construction company in Dickinson, I had repeatedly lifted things that were too heavy for one person, and I kept doing it day after day, while my back got worse and worse.  This was the first time that my back did not recover, and I had not known that it wouldn’t.

By December I could hardly stand and walk.  I quit my job and returned to Idaho.  The first chiropractor that I went to in Idaho was young and he did not know what he was doing.  After about five or six chiropractor visits, he could not even diagnose what was wrong with my back.  If I had had health insurance, I would have probably been assessed by doctors as needing back surgery and hip replacement.  Thank God I didn’t have health insurance.

The second chiropractor that I went to was the oldest in town, and he immediately knew what was wrong with my back, it was called “antalgia”, which means “leaning to one side”.  If you have an injured area on a vertebrae or disk, you will lean away from the injured area to prevent the intense pain or nerve pinching.  After about six, one hour chiropractor visits, my back was much better.

Over the following year, at first I could only walk about one block with a lot of pain and effort.  I kept trying to walk further and further each day.  Within a few months I could walk 1/2 a mile.  I did back and stomach exercises every day.

What had been the cause of my problems, was that my arms, shoulders, chest, and legs were very strong from going to the gym for many years, which allowed me to lift and carry very heavy things all day long at work, but my back muscles and my stomach muscles were not nearly as strong, this was my weak point in my body, and my back became inured.

It took me over one year to recover to 90%.  In early 2013, I was talking to a woman who had broken her back, and she told me that what had helped her to recover was the supplement glucosamine sulfate and glucosamine with chondroitin.  She told me that if I took this supplement, I would notice a difference in one week.  I did, I did notice a difference in one week.  Taking this particular supplement during the following several months helped me to recover to 100%.

In the Spring of 2013, I returned to Dickinson, and I got a job as a foreman for an underground utility construction company.  This job required a lot of physical labor and digging for about 10 hours each day, Monday through Friday.  I did this job, and I did not have any back problems, to my surprise.

During the past four years in Dickinson, I have had several other jobs, some of them I have written about on this blog website.  Some of these jobs have paid well, for a while.  A couple of weeks ago, I was offered an oil field/construction job in Dickinson, working 12 hours per day, every day.  I don’t mean 12 hours per day, every day, for one week or two weeks, I mean every day, with no days off.

This job that I was offered that involved working every day for 12 hours per day, paid $2,000 per week, every week, so I took it.  As I was told, and as it turned out to be, it was hard physical labor from 6:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m.  We worked in the rain and snow last week, (Yes, it snowed for quite a while through the morning one day last week), and then we were soaking wet and cold for the next 8 hours of work.

This is about as hard physical labor as I have done in my life, it doesn’t get much harder than this in construction.  Most of the crew workers are twenty years younger than me.  Anyone who slacks off, it is noticed immediately, and complained about immediately.  Unless you want to be let go soon, you don’t stop working, sit down, or take a break.

Everyone tries to keep up and keep going, but some can’t on some days.  Two of the new hire workers who are in their late twenties, who are experienced oil field/construction workers, complained to the foreman about two of the older workers who were not working as fast, who were tired out.  Yes, the two older workers were tired out after 8 hours, but they have been working for this company for several years, and they do make it through the whole 12 hour work day, and come back the next day.  Soon, one of the complaining twenty-year-olds was having back problems.

About 70% of the workers are having back problems of some kind.  Myself, and my co-workers, recognize in everyone who is working, in what they are doing and how they are doing it, and in what they try to get out of doing, what kind of injury or physical problem they are dealing with or trying to hide.  Sometimes we can see that someone is out of breath, light headed, dehydrated, sick, weak, worn out, tired out, or inured.  If the sick, worn out, or injured person finds something they can do, and keeps working, complaining from co-workers is minimal.  If someone frequently stops working, or is not doing enough, everyone turns against that person and complains about them to the foreman.

Having to physically compete every minute of a 12 hour work day, every day of the week, with experienced oil field/construction workers who are 20 years younger than me, is a ridiculous position for me to be in, considering that I have already been a foreman, superintendent, project manager, engineer, manager, and business owner, but people and employers in North Dakota don’t give a shit, and they could not care less.  I think about this some, but mostly I just want to make it through each day and make this money for as long as I possibly can.

More Lessons On Women

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This blog post is a furtherance of the discussion from yesterday’s blog post.

About eight years ago, I read the results of a study that was conducted by a University.  The University recruited somewhere between 400 to 1,000 women to participate in a research study.  Each woman was scheduled to come to the University three to five times per month for an approximately 1/2 hour to 1 hour session where she would be shown photographs of men, one at a time, in a private room.  For each photograph that she was shown, she was required to click the response for very unattractive, somewhat unattractive, attractive, or very attractive.

The researchers had hundreds of photographs of men.  The researchers had purposely chosen these photographs of men, in order to be able to categorize them as showing a man that was very feminine, somewhat feminine, masculine, or very masculine.

The qualities of men that were counted as masculine were, strong prominent jaw, strong prominent brow, large physical build, being muscular, and having facial hair.  The qualities of men that were counted as feminine were, soft feminine faces, slight physical build, absence of musculature, and smooth complexions with no facial hair.

After several months of conducting the research study and collecting data, the researchers found a surprising correlation, though it made sense, and could be explained.

For each individual woman, there was an odd thing that was happening.  For three weeks in a row, in each weekly session of viewing photographs of men, each individual woman would consistently choose the same type of man as being attractive.  However, on the fourth week, each individual woman would sway towards finding the most masculine men as being attractive.

What the researchers found, was that during the point in each woman’s menstrual cycle when she was able to conceive, approximately a one week period each month, she would rate the most masculine men as being attractive to her.

What was at first a little puzzling to the researchers, was if women found the most masculine men as being attractive when they were able to conceive, why didn’t women select the most masculine men as being attractive all month long?  One way to put it is, women didn’t want to deal with the most masculine men when they weren’t able to conceive, or were already pregnant.  And, that women looked at the more feminine men as easier to get along with.

What this means is, the person that a woman wants to father her children, is not necessarily the person that she wants to be married to.  Women want their children to be fathered by the biggest, strongest, most dominant male, in order for her child to have his genes and be successful.  However, women look at less masculine men as being easier to live with.

This is one reason why, though not the only reason why, I made the statement, “What women say they want, and what they actually want, are often two different things.”

I will give a couple of real life examples to illustrate what I have described above.  Number One:

A man that I worked for who had been the vice-president of a large insurance company, his daughter’s best friend got married when she was thirty-four years old.  She was a school teacher.  Prior to getting married, she and her fiancee who was thirty-six years old, discussed the subject of having children.  Her fiancee said that he did not want to have children, he thought that he was past the age of having children, was that O.K. with her?  She agreed with that, she said that she thought that she was past the age of having children.  They were in agreement, supposedly, that they did not want to have children.

The two of them were married.  About six to eight months after they were married, the wife said, “Guess what…I’m pregnant!”  The husband replied, “Guess what…I had a vasectomy!”

No, this was not the case of her husband’s vasectomy not working, this was the case of the wife getting pregnant by another man.  The husband had never told his wife that he had had a vasectomy, because he was sure that he didn’t want to have children, he could no longer have children, and his wife had said that she did not want to have children, so he didn’t bring it up.

Here is real life example Number Two:

There was an electrician that I knew who was in poor health, he was about 62 years old.  He was living with his second wife who was approximately 52 years old.  He and his second wife had been married for approximately ten years, and during their marriage his two daughters from his first marriage were kind of nasty to his wife.

Now that he was sick, his two daughters from his first marriage who were in their thirties, were somewhat more involved in his life because they were concerned about him.  The more frequent contact that they were having with their father, they took the opportunity to be mean to his second wife.  I felt sorry for his second wife, she was very long suffering and tired, she was having to care for her husband, and his two daughters in their thirties were attacking her like coyotes or hyenas.

One of his daughters was having health problems of her own.  After many medical tests, it was determined that she had this specific genetically passed on disease, that only gets passed on when both the mother and the father have it too.  The daughter insisted that this must be partly what is wrong with her father, he has to have this disease too.  He got tested…he didn’t have it…he was not her father!

He explained to his second wife, “My first wife was caught having an affair.  I said to her that we are not going to get a divorce, we are going to move several states away, and this is going to be the end of it.  When my daughter was born, I believed that she was possibly not my daughter, but I didn’t say a word about it.  When my first wife began cheating again, that is when we got a divorce.”

Here is real life example Number Three:

I was at a nightclub in Florida shortly after I had graduated from college.  There was a table with four women, who were all pretty good looking.  I went over to them and was complimentary and forward with them, which they liked.  It turned out that three of them were lesbians and one of them was not.  The one of them that was not a lesbian, was going as a Christian missionary to South America in the morning.  I spent until the early a.m. the next day with these women.

On the following weekend, I spent time with these lesbian women again, and I met more of their lesbian girl friends.  A weekend or two later, I went to a lesbian bar with these women, I said lesbian bar, not gay bar.  One of the strange things in life, is that the hottest most perfectly formed women you will ever meet, are lesbians.

This one lesbian couple that I had been around for several weekends, one of the women was a female motorcycle cop, and her girlfriend was Hispanic and a model.  I was at a party, and this Hispanic model was being very affectionate with me, she said, “My girlfriend is out of town, and sometimes I like to be with a man.”

Now pay attention, some women, and this woman in particular, are in a relationship with another woman.  For some reason, some women like being physically, romantically, and emotionally involved with another woman, and they just don’t care very much for men.  However, I suppose that this Hispanic model, when it got to be the time of the month when she was able to conceive, she found males to be attractive.

Maybe the most valuable and useful take away from this blog post, is that if you are interested in a lesbian, or some other woman who doesn’t like you, you just need to become acquainted, be observant, and wait, they may change their mind at any moment about who they like.

Lessons On Women

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During the months of July and August of this year, I got a lot of angry comments from several readers about my blog posts.  Though I had a couple thousand readers in those two months who didn’t write any comments, the same several readers kept complaining again and again.  They didn’t like my blog post titled, “Breaking Cats And Breaking Women Is The Same Thing”, my statement that “What women say they want, and what they actually want, are two different things.”, my statement that “Women will change their mind in an instant.”, or my statement that, “When women say stop, sometimes they don’t want you to stop.”

I replied to one of the commentors that he didn’t know anything about women, that he didn’t know what was going on around him, and that he should go read some books or something.  I wrote that I have gotten more complaints from women for not being abusive enough, than for being mean to them.

I will try to explain this using two real life examples.  Number One:

In North Dakota, my co-worker/supervisor who was 48 years old, the same age as me, he had a 28 year old girlfriend.  The two of them had been living together for about one year.  My co-worker/supervisor told me that his girlfriend was very good looking.  When I met her, yes, she was very good looking, in every way.  She had long brown hair, beautiful face and complexion, very good build, she was very healthy.  She was intelligent, personable, and pleasant.

Circumstances arose, to where my co-worker/supervisor needed to explain to me that about six months earlier, he and his girlfriend had gotten into a fight, a phone was dropped, knocked over, or pressed in the middle of the fight, and the phone re-dialed the owner of the company that we were working for.  The owner of the company did not answer this phone call, and it went to voice mail.  On the voice mail recording, was my co-worker/supervisor yelling at, beating, and choking his girlfriend.  His girlfriend was screaming, and yelling that she couldn’t breathe.

When the owner of the company played the voice mail message, he didn’t know what to think.  Rather than telephoning the police, the company owner drove to my co-worker/supervisor’s house to see if his girlfriend was dead or severely beaten.  During the visit from the owner of the company, my co-worker/supervisor and his girlfriend explained that everything was cool, this was a normal fight for them.

My co-worker/supervisor’s girlfriend, was very capable, healthy, intelligent, and attractive.  Her father lived about twenty minutes away, she could have gone to her father’s house any time she wanted to.  She could have walked out or driven away any time she wanted to.  Where she lived, the ratio of men to women was about 10:1, she could have gotten a boyfriend her own age, or another boyfriend in an instant.  I came to find out that my co-worker/supervisor would sometimes or often times get drunk and go crazy.  But somehow, for some reason, the yelling, fighting, and rough handling of his girlfriend, was something that she looking for, something she wanted.

I believe that many readers are going to disagree with my perspective on the story that I just told above.  Some women would say, “No woman wants to be abused or treated roughly.”  So, I will give real life example Number Two:

A friend of mine from California named Steve, was a Petty Officer in the Navy.  He was stationed in San Diego.  Steve was thin and had a slight build, he was about 5′-10″ and 140 lbs., though he was somewhat handsome.

About eight years earlier, he had a very attractive girlfriend in San Diego.  She was tall, thin, blond, and was working as a model when he was dating her.  After they had been dating for about four to six weeks, she said to Steve, “I am used to dating men who are abusive, that is what I like.  So if you want to keep me, you are going to have to start being abusive to me.”

Steve didn’t know what to think.  Steve was one of the least abusive people that you would ever meet.  He didn’t want to lose her, so he began to think about how to be abusive.  He was not coming up with anything on how to be abusive.  He could  tell that his girlfriend was becoming dissatisfied with him, because of her attitude.

He and his girlfriend had gone to the grocery store.  They were each carrying groceries and walking up the hallway stairs to his apartment.  Without warning, Steve turned around and pushed his model girlfriend down the stairs.  She tumbled down the stairs, spilling groceries everywhere, coming to a stop on the landing at the bottom of the stairs.  She had this angry look on her face like, “What the fuck is wrong with you, are you crazy?”  But then she started to smile, and then she started to laugh.

When his model girlfriend had said to Steve, that he needed to be more abusive to her, this is not exactly what she had meant, but this was the best that Steve could come up with.

Now, as crazy as you think that story sounds, I had the same thing happen to me.  I was dating this very attractive lady who was from a very wealthy family.  She lived in a very large condominium on the ocean in Florida.  After we had been dating for about four to six weeks, she had a talk with me.  She said that when she had began dating me, she thought that I was going to be more abusive to her and that she was disappointed in me.  For one thing, when I was doing something that she didn’t like, and she told me to stop, I stopped, but she didn’t want me to stop, she wanted me to do things to her that she didn’t like, and not stop when she told me to stop.

For the young men who are reading this, I am not telling you to go be abusive to women, because you can get into a lot of trouble for this.  But if you take a look around you, the young ladies are probably trying to be with the young men who are abusive and mean.  I won’t go into all the reasons now, but young women and women are attracted to men who are “Alpha Males” who take what they want, who don’t care, and who are “Dangerous”.  You can pretend to be like this if you want to attract the interest of women.

Re-Education Camp For Catholics In Dickinson, North Dakota

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I would like to have a Re-Education Camp for Catholics in Dickinson, North Dakota.  If you have ever seen the movie “The Killing Fields” about the Khmer Rouge in Cambodia, I would like to have a re-education camp like the one shown in the movie.

In the main school room hut of the camp, all of the adult hard case Catholics would be seated on the benches.  The proctor would recite, “Jesus was the son of God.”, then all of the Catholics would repeat back, “Jesus was the son of God.”

“He came to Earth to teach, to instruct, and to demonstrate he was the son of God.”

“He came to Earth to teach, to instruct, …”

“He performed miracles that no man could perform.”

“He performed miracles that no…”

“He made the blind to see, the lame to walk, and raised the dead to living.”

“He made the blind to see, the lame to walk…”

“He divided a few fishes and loaves, to feed thousands.”

“He divided a few fishes and loaves…”

Without fail, one of the Dickinson Real Estate Agents couldn’t take in anymore, and she would stand up, screaming, “We can charge whatever we want for rent!  We can charge whatever we want for rent!  We can charge whatever we want for rent!  Aaaahhhh!  Aaaahhh!”  And she would be dragged off to the Monkey Pit.

The proctor would continue, “Jesus taught that we should love one another.”  The Catholics would repeat back, “Jesus taught that we should love one another.”  As if often the case, one uprising inspires another, and soon a woman from the Catholic Auxilary would begin yelling, “We didn’t ask you to come here!  We didn’t ask you to come here!  We didn’t ask you to come here!   Aaaahhhh!  Aaaahhhh!”  And she would be dragged off to the Monkey Pit.

The proctor would continue, “Jesus taught the twelve Apostles, and these teachings were recorded in the New Testament of the Bible.”  But before the Catholics could repeat, they were interrupted by a land owner, “We don’t have to help anybody!  We don’t have to help anybody!  We don’t have to help anybody!  Aaaahhhh!  Aaaahhhh!”  And he would be dragged outside and tied to a post in the sun, lest he think that he is going to “make time” with the Catholic women in the Monkey Pit.

The remaining pupils in the main school room hut, were either being convinced of the teachings of Jesus, or they were too scared to act out.  Either way, time would tell.  If the pupils were not true believers in the teachings of Jesus, at least they would be too frightened to go back to their old habits of trying to take advantage of others and mistreat others.

(I went to Catholic School for five years, Sacred Heart School, and Sacred Heart School was just like what I have described above.)

Alexis de Tocqueville And Dickinson, North Dakota

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The first time that I heard about Alexis de Tocqueville, I was in an eighth grade social studies class.  The teacher was saying something like, “There was this guy, a French nobleman, who traveled around the United States in the 1800s, making observations.  What he wrote was very interesting, because he was an outsider, looking at things from a different point of view.”

Soon after that, there were quotes in our social studies book from Alexis de Tocqueville, which I found to be boring and uninteresting.  I will make up a quote right now, to simulate what these quotes were like:  “…These people in America, whatever endeavors they are engaged in, whether farming, building, practicing a trade, or commerce, they realize their own rewards…”  At the time, I thought, what an asshole, he is just stating the obvious everywhere he goes.

When I had a political science class in college, and they brought up Alexis de Tocqueville, I thought, “Oh no, I don’t want to hear this shit again.”

When I began writing my blog posts about Dickinson, North Dakota, I began to feel like I was Alexis de Tocqueville, stating the obvious and personally feeling that it was a profound observation:  “There is a shortage of women in Dickinson, North Dakota, and a scarcity of attractive women.  In other places, women are competitive about how they look, in order to attract men, but in Dickinson, there appears to be solidarity amongst the women, that they are all going to be overweight and unattractive, so that the men will not know the difference.”

Am I Alexis de Tocqueville reincarnated or something?  I began to realize that what Alexis de Tocqueville was writing, might have seemed obvious, but if he had not called it out, it would have gone undocumented.  What Alexis de Tocqueville was doing, was reporting exactly how things were, and also trying to explain why things were the way that they were.  This is what I have been trying to do.

In briefly reading more about Alexis de Tocqueville prior to writing this blog post, I see now that he did have some very significant insight into the nature of people, individuals, society, and government.  Now that I am older, I see all the subtle things that he was trying to detect in individuals and groups of individuals to determine what their thinking, beliefs, and motivations were.

Local Residents’ Opinions On Dickinson, North Dakota Being The 6th Best Place To Live In America

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On September 18, Time’s Money Magazine published an article of the top 100 best places to live in America, and Dickinson, North Dakota was ranked the 6th best.  This is hard to believe, and far from being true.

Yesterday, I asked a homeowner neighbor who is in his early fifties what he thought about this, and he replied, “I have lived here my whole life, and I hate it here in Dickinson.  I would like to get out of here.”

Today, I unintentionally got into a discussion with two other homeowner neighbors in their fifties, and I mentioned the Money Magazine article about Dickinson being the 6th best place to live, and one of the men replied, “I have lived in Dickinson my whole life, and I hate it here, I am trying to get out of here.”

Yesterday, I asked a politician who used to live in Dickinson what he thought about Dickinson being the 6th best place to live, and he said, “I don’t even know where to begin about that.”

I myself, would rank Dickinson as high as 80th, because of my own peculiar point of view and preferences.  My personal preferences are, that I don’t like there to be a lot going on, I don’t like traffic, and I don’t like too much diversity.  I will explain what I mean about there not being too much diversity.

As much as I complain about Dickinson, (and there is a need for change and improvement), most of the people in Dickinson are not too different in their thinking and what they want, which happens to coincide with what I want.  Just about everyone in Dickinson would like to own a home, a four wheel drive vehicle, a few toys like a motorcycle or boat, be able to pay for everything, and be left alone.

The people in Dickinson mostly believe in the individual ownership of land, vehicles, motorcycles, boats, travel trailers, animals, firearms, and big screen televisions.  And, if someone wants something, they should get a job and go buy what they want for themselves.

You could probably already tell that I was going write that Dickinson is not liberal, socialist, or communist.  The people in western North Dakota are land greedy to a fault.  And besides their excessive land greediness, they want absolutely no interference with what they do on their own land, none.

Liberals, socialists, and communists, talk about and seek the “sharing” of resources, supposedly for the overall good of everyone.  The people in Dickinson and western North Dakota don’t believe and have not ever believed in this.

In the large urban cities like New York City, San Francisco, Washington D.C., and Philadelphia, people are constantly crowded together where they live, where they work, and on their way to work.  Residences are just cubby holes stacked on top of each other,  work places are just tiny cubicles, people are shoulder to shoulder on sidewalks, public transportation, and in traffic jams.

The people in the large urban cities have given up their freedom, privacy, identity, and security, whether they know it or not.  They are living like a liberal, socialist, or communist whether they know it or not.  They don’t really own their property, even if they “own” an apartment or condominium.  They have to share the hallways, stairs, and elevators with everyone else, and they typically have no way to deny, block, or prevent access to their front door.  They have to share office space with hundreds of other people.  They have to share their transportation with hundreds of other people.  In many ways, maybe even just about every way, they have to go along with what everybody else wants, whether they agree with it or not.

Even though I complain about Dickinson, the people in Dickinson generally want the same things, except for the drug people who came to Dickinson from Seattle, Portland, and Coeur D’Alene.

How Difficult Is It To Get A Job In Dickinson, North Dakota?

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How difficult is it to get a job in Dickinson, North Dakota?  The answer is, pretty difficult.  I will give a couple of reasons.

Now, if you read through the details of the job listings for most of the oil field companies in Dickinson, about 90% of them require the applicant to have a Class A Commercial Driver’s License.  The large oil field companies in Dickinson, Baker Hughes, Halliburton, Schlumberger, Rock Pile, MBI, and all of the wireline companies require the applicant to have a Class A CDL.

On top of the requirement for a Class A CDL, they want at least a couple of years commercial driving experience, and no traffic violations, accidents, or DUIs.

The oil field companies in Dickinson do not need very many people now.  There are hundreds and thousands of oil field workers out of a job now.  The oil field companies require that the applicants have a Class A CDL, in part to weed out the riff-raff who in general could never obtain or keep a Class A CDL.  The other part is that the oil field companies want any one of their employees to be able to drive their 26,000 GVW trucks if necessary.

I found out today another reason why it is difficult to get a job in Dickinson now.  I have been looking at the job posting websites North Dakota Job Service, Indeed, Monster, CareerBuilder, and LinkedIn.  I saw an older job listing for a company in Dickinson, that was for a degreed engineer with just a couple of years of work experience.  I had done this type of job for several years after I had graduated with Bachelor of Science in engineering.

I applied for this job in Dickinson, because it was an O.K. job, and I have done this before.  This job would pay from $38,000 to $48,000 per year in my estimation.  Within about one hour of applying for this job, the job posting website sent me an e-mail stating that the employer had viewed my application, and this job posting website offered to show me data on the other applicants for this job.

To my surprise, 55% of the applicants had a Masters Degree, and 55% of the applicants had more than 10 years of work experience.  There were applicants from California, Texas, Maryland, Georgia, and North Dakota.

I have written several times in previous blog posts, that it is bullshit and a lie that the economy is doing so well in California and Texas.  If the economy were doing so well in California and Texas, you would not have people with Masters Degrees and over 10 years of work experience applying for an almost entry level $40K job 2,000 miles away, in horribly cold North Dakota.

An Unethical And Underhanded Business Decision In Dickinson, North Dakota

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I have been working for a locally owned company in Dickinson, North Dakota for a little over three years.  Sometimes this company is busy, and sometimes it is slow.  About two years ago, I was promoted to manager of this company.

Myself and some of my coworkers, have had second jobs, and third jobs, outside of working for this company.  The owner of the company that I work for, and my co-workers are generally calm and mild-mannered.  None of us want to quit working for this company, because each of us are left to do our job with very little interference, each of us is treated pretty fairly, and we are fair with each other.

Last week, myself, a co-worker with two years experience, and co-worker with five years experience were scheduled to perform work for a new customer in Dickinson.  There was another long time customer that requested work last week, that one of us three experienced workers could have done, and allowed a new hire to be the third person on the other job for the new customer.  The owner of our company said to me, “No, this is important, and I want the three of you to go.  Tell the other customer that we don’t have anyone available.”

Myself, and my two co-workers, had to put aside whatever personal and work activities that we had planned, in order to go perform work for this new customer.  When we arrived at this business location, I introduced ourselves, and I asked to speak to the manager.  After about three or four minutes, the manager walked up, she was a lady who myself and my co-workers knew from other work that we had done.

The manager said, “I never got a contract back, we never signed a contract, we don’t need you.”  I was very taken aback by this, but I didn’t react in proportion to how I felt.  I said, “Oh, O.K.”  I realized that it probably was true that someone didn’t sign a contract or get a contract back.  I realized that in the lobby of this business was not the place to have an argument at this moment, especially since I didn’t know about the contract not being signed or returned.

I apologized to my co-workers, and I told them that I would telephone the owner of our company to explain what was happening.  I tried repeatedly to telephone and text the owner of our company, but I could not get in contact with him.  After about half an hour, I told my co-workers to go ahead and forget about doing this work for today.

I was very angry about what had happened.  Ever since I was about 26 years old, I had been responsible for scheduling contractors, equipment, and material.  I always tried to be very clear with all contractors and suppliers about what was needed, when it was needed, and if there were any changes or anything else that they needed to know.  It would not do me any good, my company any good, or anyone else any good, to allow a mistake to happen.  In fact, making a few costly mistakes would have resulted in me losing my job.

This lady manager, who I am tempted to refer to as “this fat bitch” for the remainder of my story, could have sent one text message, one e-mail, or made one phone call to the owner of my company a month ago, a week ago, or one day ago, stating, “We don’t need you after all, sorry.”  However, the way she chose to handle this, was to not inform the owner of our company that anything was wrong or that they didn’t need us, and to allow us to put this work on our schedule, to decline other work, and to show up with three people to perform this work.  She seemed kind of pleased with herself, and snarky when she said, “We never got a contract back, we never signed a contract, we don’t need you.”

The owner of our company has had this business in Dickinson for twenty years.  The overall manager of the business that we were going to perform work for, has been the manager there for twenty-eight years, and she has known the owner of our company for that long.  The corporate sales manager who did this underhanded thing, has been at this business for less than two years.  I don’t know why or how this lady felt that handling this the way that she did helped her or benefited her in any way.  I would expect that she will have negative consequences from this, though I don’t think she ever thought of this, or she would not have done it.

Though this kind of thing can happen, especially when one or both parties is trying to be sneaky, treacherous, or underhanded, it had never happened at this company that I work for in Dickinson, or with any other project, contractor, or supplier that I have dealt with.  However, now that I think about it, about half the time women do do things like this.

Time’s Money Magazine Just Named Dickinson, North Dakota As 6th Best Place To Live

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On September 18 Time’s Money Magazine published a list of the 100 best places to live, and Dickinson, North Dakota ranked 6th.  Oh my God!  You probably couldn’t find twenty people in Dickinson that would even put Dickinson in the top 50 places to live.  You probably couldn’t find twenty people in the state of North Dakota that would put Dickinson in the top 50 places to live.

In some ways Dickinson is one of the worst places in the United States to live:

  1. The ratio of men to women in Dickinson is about 3:1.  There is a shortage of women, and a scarcity of attractive women.  Of the many states, cities, and towns that I have lived and worked in for the past 48 years, Dickinson has the most unattractive women of any place that I have ever been.  These statements are common knowledge here in Dickinson.
  2. Dickinson is one of the least educated places that I have ever lived.  Higher education is derided, ridiculed, laughed at, and penalized in Dickinson.  In Dickinson, people who did four years in prison are treated better that people who did four years in college.
  3. Dickinson is one of the least healthy places that I have ever lived.  It is common for both men and women to be overweight, use tobacco products, and to never engage in healthy exercise.  Only about 10% of the people in Dickinson engage in regular exercise.
  4. There is a lack of entertainment, social activities, and things to do in Dickinson.  Yes there is the West River Community Center which is nice.  There are outdoor concerts in downtown Dickinson in the summer which are nice.  But, with the shortage of women, and scarcity of attractive women, most men end up going to bars, and getting a DUI when they go home.  I have never seen more people get DUIs, than I have here in Dickinson, which is mostly because there is nothing to do and it is depressing here.
  5. I have never met more depressed, down on their luck, nearly hopeless, suicidal people than I have here in Dickinson.  It is difficult to get a job in Dickinson.  There are not a lot of things to do in Dickinson.  There is a scarcity of women in Dickinson.  All of these things, plus the unfriendliness of people in Dickinson, make many people that I have met become very depressed, hopeless, and suicidal.
  6. About 90% of the out of state workers who came to Dickinson for work during the oil boom, couldn’t wait to get out of here.  They said it out loud every day.

I have never seen a news article be more wrong than the Money Magazine article ranking Dickinson as the 6th best place to live in the United States.  Whoever wrote this article should have to come and live in Dickinson for one year.

I don’t know how the data was manipulated in order to somehow make Dickinson the 6th best place to live.  The editor of Money Magazine should interview two oil field workers, two truck drivers, two retail workers, two fast food workers, two black people, two gay people, and two housewives from out of state, and I guarantee that each of these people would say that Dickinson is a difficult and unpleasant place to live.

Background Check On Employers In Dickinson, North Dakota

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You read that correctly, Background Check On Employers In Dickinson, North Dakota.  I recommend to everyone, that if you are going to apply to work at a company in Dickinson, North Dakota, you perform a background check on your employer.

There is a fairly large company in Dickinson, where I applied to work once in approximately 2014.  Though I was well qualified, or perhaps over qualified for the position that I applied for, I did not hear anything from this company after I applied.

Employers anywhere, have their own personal beliefs and preferences for who they would like to hire.  Some employers want employees who stay at the same job for many years, other employers want employees who show ambition.  Some want employees who are family men, who don’t drink, don’t get into trouble, and have no criminal record.  Other employers want men who are risk takers, rough, not afraid of getting hurt, or putting others at risk.

In Dickinson, employers seem to favor local people, and North Dakotans, over people from out of state.  This is probably a combination of a feeling of obligation or loyalty to local people, comfort in dealing with people from a similar background, discomfort in dealing with people from a different background, and people from elsewhere having different beliefs, values, and ethics.

I have had the experience in Dickinson, where my life experiences, work experiences, education, beliefs, values, and ethics, were so different from my employer’s, that I had problems.  As an example, a company that I recently worked for in Dickinson, had the practice of not paying employees for the hours that they worked.  The owner and his wife, would look at employees’ time sheets, and pay them for less hours than they worked, based on their opinion of how much work was completed.

When I sought to file a complaint with the Department of Labor, I found out that there were four previous complaints against this company for failure to pay employees wages that they were owed.  I found out from local people in Dickinson, that this practice used to be fairly common in Dickinson.  I also found out that this company owner owed a lot more than four employees money, after looking him up on the North Dakota record of active and completed court cases, NDcourts.

The company in Dickinson that I had applied to in 2014, and never heard back, I saw that they had another job advertisement for an engineer in August, so I applied again.  I didn’t expect to hear back from this company, because I don’t think that they liked me or my resume.  And again, I didn’t hear back from them.  I wondered what it was about me, that would make me so unacceptable to this company.  I have a good education, a great deal of work experience, and a completely clean background, what is wrong with me as an applicant?

I decided to look up the company owner to see what kind of person, HE is, since he is judging me, and I am not suitable for his company.  One of the court cases that he was involved in, involved a dispute over child support payments.  At about the time he was starting his company in Dickinson when he was in his early twenties, he became married.  He and his wife had three children.  By the time he was in his early thirties, he became divorced.

His company was organized as a corporation.  As his company was doing well, he paid himself a salary of $60,000 per year.  The extra money that his company made, was held as retained earnings.  Though the retained earnings grew to $700,000, he continued to pay himself a salary of $60,000 per year.  The child support that he paid, was based on his salary of $60,000 per year.

His ex-wife, and his ex-wife’s attorney, tried to explain to the court, that the child support that he was paying, was based on his $60,000 per year salary, but look at how much money his company was making, this isn’t right.  I believe that the court in North Dakota decided that there was no law saying that the company owner had to pay himself more money, or receive more of the retained earnings of his corporation.  So, his child support payments remained the same.

Ha, ha.  He outsmarted the courts, his ex-wife, and his ex-wife’s attorney, in not having to pay more money in support for his children.  It’s hamburger helper, macaroni cheese, and Wal-Mart for them.

My Neighbor Said He Lost His Dog

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On Friday evening it was raining in Dickinson.  I was driving around the corner in my truck, and my neighbor was just getting home from riding his bicycle, he was wearing rain gear.  I asked him if he wanted to go get something to eat, and he acted kind of mad, and he sounded kind of mad.

My neighbor is moody, and he admits it.  He and his wife were divorced about ten years ago.  His ex-wife, ex-girlfriends, and current girlfriend have similar criticisms and complaints, part of it being his dark or unfriendly moods, which he is more aware of after the fact, than when they occur.

On Saturday he called me on the telephone to apologize for his angry behavior.  One of the first things he said was that he had lost his dog.  I thought that he was talking about his dog being dead.

He has this very small old male dog that is 14 years old.  It is about sixteen inches long from rear to snout, about eight inches high at the shoulders, and it weighs less than twenty pounds.  I don’t think this dog can see very well or hear very well.  I have been out to Patterson Lake with this dog, and it quit walking and just sat there not saying anything, and its owner had to come back and examine it, and it had stepped on a cactus and had cactus thorns in its foot.

My neighbor explained that on Friday when he was riding his bicycle in the rain, he had gotten into an accident.  He was going too fast, he lost control of his bicycle when he hit a curb too hard, everything went flying out of his bicycle basket, his backpack came off, and it was very embarrassing because there were people around, and dogs started barking.  He could have been hurt very bad, but he wasn’t.

He picked up the things that had come out of the bicycle basket and off of his bicycle.  He didn’t realize that his backpack had come off, and he left it there without knowing.  His small old dog had been in one of the bicycle baskets.  He looked around for his dog, and it wasn’t there.  He looked and looked for the dog, but it wasn’t there.  He supposed that the dog didn’t want to get back in the basket, so it walked off.

I said, “So your dog didn’t die?”  My neighbor said, “No, he’s home here now.”  I said, “Wait a minute, where was this that you got in a wreck on your bicycle?”  My neighbor said, “Over by the South Side Bar on Broadway.”

I couldn’t believe it.  The South Side Bar is at least a mile away.  The 14 year old, 8 inch tall, 16 pound dog, that can hardly see, and can hardly hear, had to walk across Broadway, walk through the rail road yard with about four sets of tracks with trains operating on each of the tracks, walk across four-lane Villard in downtown Dickinson which always has cars and people have a hard time crossing, and walk through all kinds of streets in downtown Dickinson to get back to his house.

My neighbor said yup, and it took him about one day to do it.  I said, I don’t even think that your dog could find his way home from the Family Fare grocery store, and you are telling me that your dog made it home all the way from the South Side Bar?

My neighbor said, “That’s not as bad as the time that I lost him out at Patterson Lake.  It was very cold, and he was wearing a sweater.  It got dark and late, and I called him and I called him, but he didn’t come.  I could hear him bark once, but he was very far away.  I kept calling him, and it got to be about 10:30 p.m., and I had to work the next day, so I left him.  He made it home after about two days.  It got down to nearly freezing at night.  When he came home, he wasn’t wearing his sweater.  He must have gotten his sweater caught on some barbed wire, that is why he didn’t come when I called  him.”

Patterson Lake is about six miles away, and most German Shepherds, Labrador Retrievers, and Pit Bulls wouldn’t find their way home from there, let alone an 8 inch tall, 16 pound dog.  It also kind of surprises me that he would even try to find his way back to my neighbor’s house.

Will You Catholics Take A Look At Your Church

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I have written approximately eight blog posts criticizing the Catholic Church in Dickinson, North Dakota.  I have elaborated many times that the Catholic Church in Dickinson does not teach what the New Testament Of The Bible teaches, and what Jesus Christ taught:  “So do you unto the least of my people, so do you unto me”.

The Catholic Church in Dickinson, rather than teaching people to be kind, caring, and helpful towards others, has instilled in the Catholics here that they are better than others, and that it is O.K. to take advantage of others.

I don’t know why the Catholics can’t read the Bible for themselves, and understand that the Catholic Church is far, far away from the teachings of Jesus.

Here is an excerpt from an article written by Stephanie Kirchgaessner for The Guardian on Friday September 15:

“A Vatican diplomat in Washington has been recalled to Rome after the US state department said the priest may have violated laws related to child sex abuse images.

The US state department notified the Holy See last month of a possible violation of laws. American prosecutors said they wanted the Vatican to voluntarily lift the official’s diplomatic immunity so that he could face charges, according to several reports, but the Vatican refused. The request was made on 21 August.

The Vatican said an investigation had been opened and the church was seeking “international collaboration to obtain elements relative to the case”, and it would be handled confidentially on a preliminary basis. It said the priest had already returned to Vatican City.

The Vatican said its decision to recall the priest was in line with normal diplomatic practices.

The information was transmitted by the state department to the Vatican’s secretariat of state, Pietro Parolin, the Vatican said, who in turn has turned the matter over to the Vatican’s top justice official.

The Associated Press, quoting an official familiar with the case, said the priest was a senior member of the Vatican embassy staff.

As a member of the Vatican’s diplomatic corps, the priest could not be prosecuted in the US, though he could have been expelled.

It is not the first time the Vatican has been forced to recall a diplomatic official. In 2013, it recalled the Vatican’s then ambassador to the Dominican Republic following allegations that he sexually abused minors.”

You do not need a Pope, Cardinals, Bishops, and Diplomats, who have authority and wealth.  Jesus did not teach anything about this, other than teaching against pride, power, wealth, and corruption.  So where your treasure is, there is where your heart will also be.

Review Of Rock Godz Concert, Taylor North Dakota

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This past weekend in Taylor, North Dakota, they had the “Good Ol’ Taylor Days” festival.  This event had an antique tractor display, tractor parade, antique tractor pull, and a classic car show.  On Sunday evening at 6:00 p.m. they had an outdoor concert with the band Rock Godz.

Many local people had been at the event all day Saturday and all day Sunday.  There were not a lot of people that stayed for the concert.  When the band Rock Godz began playing at 6:00 p.m., they sounded pretty much the same as most local bands, more or less, only they were playing Classic Rock, instead of Country Western.

For their first few songs, I wondered why the local people in Taylor even booked a Classic Rock band, what were they thinking?  There were some local people that really wanted to be there, like this was the best thing that ever happened in a long time.

After a while, once the band had warmed up, they sounded very, very good, unusually and abnormally good.  I will give some credit to their sound guy, and how they arranged everyone’s microphone and amplification.  You could clearly discern each person’s vocals, guitar, and drum, separately.  Each person and their instruments were clear and precise.

In many concerts, especially rock concerts, the volume and amplification is so high, that the precise, fine sounds are muted, and everything is blended together to make a very loud noise.  Vocals, guitars, drums, all drown each other out and roll over top of each other.  This was the clearest sounding rock concert that I had ever been to.

The lead vocalist, lead guitar, base guitar, and drummer were all very good, and they didn’t have anything to hide.  Just the opposite, they made it so that you could hear each one of them individually, and hear how good they were.

In the past four years, I have been to between 80 to 100 concerts.  I would rate the Rock Godz lead vocalist as being in the top 3, the lead guitarist being in the top 3, and the drummer being in the top 5, of everyone that I have heard in these 80 to 100 concerts, including Firehouse, Hair Ball, and 32 Below.

The band played from 6:00 p.m. to 10:30 p.m., much longer than most bands play.  They did it just because they enjoyed playing, and they were having a good time.  I am going to give you a quote from the band’s website, because I agree with it 100%:

“A Rock Godz performance takes the audience on an over-the-top, wildly fun trip through the best eras of rock and pop music. Their 80’s-focused production (combined with classic and current rock/pop) creates an instant party scene where friends raise their glasses and sing along to their favorite songs – all night long!  Rock Godz features music from all of your favorites, including Def Leppard, Bon Jovi, Motley Crue, Journey, Guns N’ Roses, AC/DC, Poison, Prince, Bryan Adams, Led Zeppelin, Theory of a Deadman, Quiet Riot, Buck Cherry, Steel Panther…and many more!

Rock Godz is made up of professional, veteran musicians who have toured regionally and nationally with acts such as Jonah and the Wales, Wild Side, Mortal Chaos, Shameless Desire, Hollywood Blvd, 13th Step, Si6ks, A:POD, 80-D, and Driven By Design.  Their extensive experience as rockers and performers has allowed them to share the stage with national acts including Dokken, Great White, Ratt, Slaughter, Firehouse, Jackyl, Saliva, Joey Belladona, Sevendust, Candle Box, Seether, Skid Row, Alice In Chains, Shinedown, Vince Neil, Brett Michaels, Krokus, American Head Charge, and more. Members have “rocked” some of the biggest stages around including Target Center, The Myth, First Avenue, and Whiskey a Go-Go (L.A.).  Rock Godz is an experience you don’t want to miss!  These guys know how to party!!!”

140 Year Old Log Barn And Log House In North Dakota

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In my previous blog post, I wrote that I have begun uploading videos to YouTube, and that these videos are not controversial.  However, some of the videos that I am uploading now will be controversial.

In a very, very remote area, I found a log barn and a log house that are approximately 140 years old.  The barn and the house were constructed in approximately 1880.  These are some of the oldest structures that you will find in North Dakota.

Beside the barn, there is a dozer, which had begun clearing a portion of the land adjacent to the barn.  It looks like the dozer operator made an effort to not damage the barn and the house.

Believe me, the old log barn and the old log house are inconsequential to what is being done at this location.  This location is very hidden, and the location has been improved at great expense to have constant, uninterrupted, and substantial amounts of water, enough for a community of people and animals.

Though many readers and myself, may think that this very old farmstead is something that should be preserved and protected for all North Dakotans, there are not many undisturbed locations like this, this is not going to happen.  As one of my friends put it, “In the middle of nowhere, in the middle of nowhere, in the middle of nowhere”, that is where this is.

On your internet browser, type in “YouTube”.  Once you click on the YouTube site, in their search bar, type in “Dickinson58601 Living in Dickinson North Dakota”.  These videos are titled “140 Year Old Log Barn North Dakota”, and “140 Year Old Log House North Dakota”.

Here is the link below to this YouTube video:

If You Want To See Kayaking On The Heart River In Dickinson, Go To YouTube

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Several weeks ago I wrote a blog post letting the readers know that I would begin uploading videos to YouTube.  These videos do not have commentary, and they are not controversial.  I just wanted to show different aspects of Dickinson, North Dakota using video.

My latest three videos show kayaking on the Heart River in Dickinson.  These short videos are quite picturesque and somewhat funny.

On your internet browser, type in “YouTube”.  Once you click on the YouTube site, enter in their search bar “Dickinson58601 Living in Dickinson North Dakota”.  The three latest videos are “Heart River Horses Dickinson North Dakota”, “Heart River Horses And Dogs Dickinson North Dakota”, and “Heart River Kayaking With Dogs Dickinson North Dakota”.

Don’t attack the person in the video, this is not me, this is someone who lives in my neighborhood.

Here is the link to this YouTube video:

Exposing Some Bad Things In Dickinson, North Dakota

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I have lived in Dickinson, North Dakota for five years now.  Ever since I came to Dickinson, I could tell that there were things going on that were wrong.  There were things that were adversely affecting me, my friends, and other people that I met.  I wanted to know what was going on, what were the reasons, what was behind all of this.  Eventually I created this blog website, and here are some of the things that I wrote about:

  1. The gouging and taking advantage of out of state workers on housing.
  2. The deliberate creating of a shortage and not alleviating the shortage of housing in order to keep prices high to benefit local property owners.
  3. OSHA refusing to investigate the work site death of Eric Haider.
  4. No one being charged with manslaughter over the work site death of Eric Haider.
  5. Public and private businesses violating EEO laws in order to hire friends and relatives.
  6. Failure of the Department of Labor to hold employers accountable for non-payment of wages.
  7. Long history of companies and employers in Dickinson attempting to keep wages low in order to prevent employees from ever getting ahead or being able to leave.
  8. Not allowing prostitution though the ratio of men to women varied from 3:1 to 30:1.
  9. Newspaper reports of multiple occurrences of local men resorting to sex with cows and horses in this area.

One of the causes of the injustices that I have listed above, appears to be the Catholic Church in Dickinson.  The Catholic Church in Dickinson has encouraged the Catholics to believe that they are better than everyone else, has encouraged anything that brings money to the Church, and has not discouraged or spoken out against the mistreatment or taking advantage of others.

A second cause of some of the injustices in Dickinson, appears to be the Dickinson Mafia.  The Dickinson Mafia are a group of men who own businesses, who hold public office, who are on boards of directors, and who manage some of the large companies in Dickinson.  They sought to keep wages low so that workers could never get ahead, would have to work their whole life for low wages, and could never leave.  The Dickinson Mafia also sought to control Dickinson by giving jobs as favors or rewards to people who did what they wanted, and not giving jobs to people that were independent, regardless of education, skill, and qualifications.  The Dickinson Mafia was greatly responsible for the Nepotism and Chronyism that goes on in Dickinson.

A third cause of some of the injustices in Dickinson, appears to be the failure of the police, the judicial system, and the press to hold people accountable for wrong doing.  I have come across situations in Dickinson, where individuals should have been arrested but were not, should have been prosecuted but were not, should have received long prison sentences but did not, and should have been fully covered in the Dickinson Press newspaper but were not.

Some of the really bad bad things that have been done by prominent people and businesses in Dickinson have been covered by newspapers outside of Dickinson, such as the Jamestown Sun, the Grand Forks Herald, and the Bismarck Tribune.  This is one way to handle it, and leave the Dickinson Press newspaper out of it.

The Bismarck Tribune newspaper did publish an article approximately one year ago, that described the failure of the North Dakota Department of Labor to hold employers accountable for non-payment of wages to workers.  There had been a two year wait after a worker complaint had been filed, before a case worker was even assigned to the complaint.  75% of the Department of Labor complaints were against oil field companies in western North Dakota.

I myself was shorted wages by an oil field company in the Dickinson area, so were some of my coworkers, so were some former employees of this company.  I called the North Dakota Department of Labor, and there were four other complaints against this company by former employees for non-payment of wages.

The Dickinson Press newspaper writes glowing newspaper articles about this company and the owner.  How can that be?  I began asking many local people about this company and the company owner.  I wanted to know why was he doing this, how did he think that he could get away with this, and what kind of person is he?  I found out more and more.

In high school, in the seventh grade, this company owner raped a boy in the gym locker room.  It was a very severe sexual assault.  He should have been arrested, convicted, sent to a juvenile detention center, and been registered for life as a convicted sex offender.  None of those things happened.  I asked why this didn’t happen.  I was told because of his family name, who his family was, and because his family had money.

In a previous blog post that I wrote titled, “Summary Of Wickedness And Perversion In Dickinson, North Dakota”, I wrote about a very similar incident to the one that I just described above, where a member of a wealthy and prominent local family was convicted of molesting an 8 year old girl.  His prison sentence and restitution was extremely lenient, unbelievably lenient.

In that blog post, I wrote that one of the problems in Dickinson, is that some people in Dickinson think that they are so much better than other people, that they can take advantage of other people with impunity.

As long as the Catholic Church continues to teach that Catholics are better than other people, there will continue to be people trying to take advantage of others, and mistreatment of others in Dickinson.  As long as the Dickinson Mafia continues to practice Nepotism and Chronyism, there will be corruption, collusion, injustice, unfairness, and mistreatment of people in Dickinson.

As long as the police, judicial system, and press do not hold all people equally accountable, there will be corruption, injustice, unfairness, underhandedness, crime, and mistreatment of people in Dickinson.